Adequate and steady supplies of minerals are essential for the nation’s economic and social development. For its small size Britain is relatively well endowed with mineral resources, and their extraction and use have played an important role in the historic development of the UK economy. The UK continues to have an economically significant minerals industry, with oil and gas, and construction minerals being the dominant sectors in terms of tonnage and value. Although UK coal production is much diminished, coal still makes a significant contribution to our energy mix. A number of industrial minerals support downstream industries and some, important export markets.ududAs in the past, future demand for, and thus production and import of, minerals is continually evolving. It will continue to be strongly influenced by a range of economic, political, technical, social and environmental factors. This report takes a backward look at Britain’s mineral production. The last three decades or so have witnessed major changes in the fortunes of each of Britain’s extractive sectors – oil and gas, coal, construction and industrial minerals, and metals.ududWhilst the future cannot be simply extrapolated from the past, it is useful to record and analyse some of these trends to see if they identify any drivers for the future. This report presents trends in the production of a wide range of minerals, including for the fossil fuels – coal, natural gas and oil; construction minerals – aggregates, brick clay, cement-making raw materials and gypsum; and a number of industrial minerals – kaolin, ball clay, silica sand, potash, industrial carbonates, fluorspar and barytes.ududThere have been substantial changes in the UK minerals industry over the last 30+ years. Overall the trend has been one of decline, both in terms of minerals production and consumption. The UK is also becoming increasingly dependent on imports of minerals and minerals-based products. This not only places increasing demands on the environments of our trading partners but potentially makes us more vulnerable to supply disruptions through growing global demand for minerals driven by expanding populations and rising incomes and, in some regions, geopolitical instability. This means that there will be a continuing demand for the products of the UK’s extractive industries for the foreseeable future. The extent to which domestic supply is able to meet that demand will ultimately depend on the wide range of relevant policies, both fiscal and regulatory, adopted by future governments, and also the political and environmental acceptability of continued minerals extraction. Britain’s resource security and its longer term access to mineral supplies, both from domestic and overseas sources, will remain a key issue for the economy and politicians for many years to come.ud
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机译：充足而稳定的矿物质供应对国家的经济和社会发展至关重要。由于其面积小，英国拥有相当丰富的矿产资源，其开采和使用在英国经济的历史发展中发挥了重要作用。英国的矿产行业仍然具有重要的经济意义，其中石油和天然气以及建筑矿产是吨位和价值的主要行业。尽管英国的煤炭产量大大减少，但煤炭仍然为我们的能源结构做出了重要贡献。许多工业矿物支持下游产业和一些重要的出口市场。过去，矿物的未来需求以及矿物的生产和进口在不断发展。它将继续受到一系列经济，政治，技术，社会和环境因素的强烈影响。该报告对英国的矿产生产进行了回顾。在过去的三十年左右的时间里，英国的每个采掘业（石油和天然气，煤炭，建筑和工业矿产以及金属）的命运都发生了重大变化。 ud ud尽管不能简单地从过去推断出未来，但有助于记录和分析其中一些趋势，以了解它们是否确定了未来的驱动因素。本报告介绍了多种矿物的生产趋势，包括矿物燃料-煤炭，天然气和石油；建筑矿物–集料，砖粘土，水泥原料和石膏；以及许多工业矿物–高岭土，球形粘土，硅砂，钾盐，工业碳酸盐，萤石和重晶石。 ud ud在过去的30多年中，英国的矿物工业发生了巨大变化。总体而言，无论是在矿产生产还是消费方面，这一趋势都是下降的趋势之一。英国也越来越依赖矿物和矿物产品的进口。这不仅对我们的贸易伙伴的环境提出了越来越高的要求，而且潜在地使我们变得更容易受到供应中断的影响，这是由于人口增长和收入增加以及某些地区的地缘政治动荡导致全球对矿物的需求不断增长。这意味着在可预见的未来，对英国采掘业产品的需求将持续增长。国内供应能否满足需求的程度最终取决于未来政府采取的广泛的相关政策，包括财政和监管政策，以及持续开采矿物的政治和环境可接受性。英国的资源安全及其从国内和海外来源的矿产资源的长期获取，将仍然是未来几年经济和政治人物的关键问题。
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